1. Field
Example embodiments relate to a semiconductor integrated circuit and, for example, a clock control technique of an integrated circuit.
2. Description of Related Art
In modern VLSI designs, clock power is a design limitation. In spite of increasing of power leakage, clock power may take a relatively large portion of total power consumption within a modern microprocessor. Clock gating has been proposed as a technique for reducing dynamic power consumption. Clock gating may be one power saving technique that may be applied to logic blocks.
With conventional gating techniques, it is possible to reduce power consumption by making an integrated circuit operate at a clock signal of a relatively low frequency based on loading of application programs. Further, a method has been used which interrupts a clock signal applied to processing units unnecessary for an operation based on the control of software. In the case of clock gating using software control, the unit of a circuit to be controlled may be relatively large and it may be impossible to gate a clock in a desired time unit.